Will the Real Satoshi Nakamoto Please Stand Up

It has been quite a day in the world of Bitcoin as there have been more stories than I can count on Satoshi Nakomoto. The day started early this morning when one of our readers, Tony Lam sent me a piece by Coindesk. Their headline was, “Bitcoin Inventor Satoshi Nakamoto ‘Found’ in California”Nermin Hajdarbegovic covered the story and discussed that Newsweek had tracked down the creator of Bitcoin. From the article:

Newsweek scoop

Newsweek magazine is reviving its print edition this week and it came back in style, with one of the biggest scoops in bitcoin history (if it turns out to be true, that is). Newsweek’s Leah McGrath Goodman apparently managed to find the real Satoshi Nakamoto, and what’s even more surprising is that the humble man behind the cryptocurrency craze was hiding in plain sight. The real Satoshi is not a Tokyo whiz kid, nor a spy or a group of developers – there was never any mystery, or pseudonym. He is 64-year-old Satoshi Nakamoto, a Californian with a love of math, encryption and model trains, McGrath Goodman claims. His background is not entirely clear, but he apparently worked on classified projects for major corporations and the US military. He is not living out his days sipping cocktails and spending his bitcoin fortune on the French Riviera, either. Nakamoto lives in Temple City, California, in his humble family home. Not what you would expect from a man who is said to hold $400m in bitcoins.

Then Ryan Nakashima came out with an article for the Associated Press, Nakashima writes that the man Newsweek found denies being the creator of Bitcoin.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Dorian Prentice Satoshi Nakamoto said Thursday that he is not the creator of bitcoin, adding further mystery to the story of how the world’s most popular digital currency came to be. The denial came after Newsweek published a 4,500-word cover story claiming Nakamoto is the person who wrote the computer code underpinnings of bitcoin. In an exclusive two-hour interview with The Associated Press, Nakamoto, 64, denied he had anything to do with it and said he had never heard of bitcoin until his son told him he had been contacted by a Newsweek reporter three weeks ago. Nakamoto acknowledged that many of the details in Newsweek’s report are correct, including that he once worked for a defense contractor, and that his given name at birth was Satoshi. But he strongly disputed the magazine’s assertion that he is “the face behind bitcoin.” “I got nothing to do with it,” he said, repeatedly. Newsweek stands by its story, which kicked off the relaunch of its print edition after 15 months and reorganization under new ownership.

Will Yakowicz wrote a piece for Inc magazine that came out with 3 facts about Nakamoto. Fact number one from the article:

1. He won’t admit it.

Goodman reports that when she finally found Nakamoto’s home in Southrn California’s San Bernardino foothills, he called the police on her. After two officers came, Nakamoto came outside. He didn’t give her much information, but did obliquely refer to a former connection with Bitcoin. “I am no longer involved in that and I cannot discuss it,” he told Goodman. “It’s been turned over to other people. They are in charge of it now. I no longer have any connection.” His two brothers, Tokuo and Arthur Nakamoto, say their brother will probably never admit whether or not he is the creator of Bitcoin. “Dorian can just be paranoid. I cannot get through to him. I don’t think he will answer any of these questions to his family truthfully,” Tokuo tells Newsweek. “He is very meticulous in what he does, [and] he is very afraid to take himself out into the media.”

Now just a little while ago Catherine Shu on Tech Crunch wrote a post in where someone claiming to be the Bitcoin creator says he is not Dorian Nakamoto.

Meanwhile, an individual claiming to be the real Satoshi Nakamoto said the Newsweek story was wrong in a brief post on the P2P Foundation‘s Ning page,

stating simply “I am not Dorian Nakamoto.” Though still no one knows for sure who Bitcoin’s creator is (or if Satoshi Nakamoto is even his real name), the Ning post is notable because it is connected with the same email address used on the 2009 P2P Foundation post and attached paper which was one of the first to describe Bitcoin. TechCrunch emailed the creator of the P2P Foundation’s Ning, Josef Davies-Coates, who verified that the email associated with the account is the same one connected to the 2009 post. Here is our email exchange with Davies-Coates.

So there is a lot to digest today on the real identity of Satoshi Nakamoto, it continues to evolve into one of the great mysteries of the Internet era.